Deutsche Welle, 9 January 2014
The EU Commission has extended a deadline for the introduction of a faster and cheaper intra-bank payments system called SEPA. The delay by six months is caused by slow adoption in member countries.
The EU Commission has extended a deadline for the introduction of a faster and cheaper intra-bank payments system called SEPA. The delay by six months is caused by slow adoption in member countries.
The
European Union's new Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) was not going to be fully
implemented before August 1, the EU Commission announced Thursday.
Intra-bank
payments would be allowed to be carried out using the old, shorter national bank
account data format for six more months beyond the initial February 1 cut-off
date, the EU's executive body said.
“I regret
having to do this but it is a measure of prudence to counter the possible risk
of disruption to payments,” EU Internal markets Commissioner Michael Barnier
said in a statement.
Barnier
also lamented slow adoption of SEPA by EU member states and called on
governments to intensify efforts to migrate to the new system.
The Single
Euro Payments Area will cover the 28 EU member states plus Iceland,
Liechtenstein, Monaco, Norway and Switzerland. It is meant to enable cheaper, faster and more secure transfers between bank accounts.
However,
SEPA Credit Transfers were only about 64 percent compliant by the end of
November 2013, and SEPA Direct Debits only 26 percent, according to latest EU
Commission data.
The
Commission's decision still needs to be accepted by the European Parliament and
EU governments. But Commission spokeswoman Chantal Hughes said that the
approval was expected to be reached easily.
The
European Central Bank (ECB) insisted that the switch should be completed as
quickly as possible, noting that the majority of stakeholders in the 18-nation
eurozone would complete the transition on time.
uhe/lw (AFP, AP)
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